Sheril Kirshenbaum, PhD

Sheril Kirshenbaum, PhD

Contact Me

CSUS - Science, Policy and Decision making
Department of Community Sustainability

Email:

Hometown: Suffern, New York

Advisor: Rebecca Jordan

I have spent my career working to enhance public understanding of science and improve communication between scientists, policymakers and the public.

At Michigan State University, I host "Our Table," a series of round table discussions bringing together farmers and food experts, health professionals and community members to listen to each other and foster dialogue about where our food comes from and how it impacts our health and planet. In my role at Food@MSU, I also co-direct the biannual Food Literacy and Engagement Poll on a variety of food topics to help inform discussion, business planning and policy development. As executive director of Science Debate, I work with presidential candidates to address science policy prior to Election Day. I also currently host Serving Up Science at PBS Digital Studios.

In 2009 co-authored Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future with Chris Mooney and am also the author of The Science of Kissing published in 2011. I have hosted blogs at Discover, Scientific American, Science Blogs, and Wired, as well as the weekly podcast Serving Up Science.

I have been a 2015 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a legislative NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and a Next Generation Fellow through the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law.

Previously I served as director of the University of Texas at Austin Energy Poll. I have also worked with the Webber Energy Group at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. I have been a visiting scholar with The Pimm Group, a fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and a Howard Hughes Research Fellow. I hold MSc degrees in marine biology and policy and live in East Lansing, Michigan with my husband and sons.

Learn more about Sheril’s work as an Academic Specialist and the Host of Our Table at MSU.